‘Ugh!’, said the daughter of the woman who was holding the garage sale, ‘Take those ugly buttons, away! Please! Free!  Just take them!’
Well…. I didn’t  think that the buttons were hideously ugly…. just kind of
hopelessly kitschy.
I certainly wouldn’t
have bought them….
but the upcycler in
me just could not
resist the challenge.
I wondered if I could ever use the buttons in a reasonable way.
Hmmm… I could cover them with fabric, if worst came to worst…
This evening, I was looking for something else, and found the poor much maligned buttons.
I thought…. why don’t I use a flower from my flower looms and a little spool …read more

I’ve been posting about flower looms lately, because a dear friend sent me a box of flower and magic looms.
The flowers from
flower looms work
beautifully  in combination
with crochet.
I quite like using
unusual yarns with
the flower looms.
This is slubbly quite
hefty silk handspun
in a shawl.
Here are a
bunch of flower loom
flowers in another
shawl- also all
made in handspun yarns.
The rainbow  flower
was made with
spool knitted cord
on a flower loom.
The white flower
was made with chained
yarn…..
so you can really play with
your yarn before you use it
with a flower loom.
What are those flowers part of?
Well…
a wild and wonderful
freeform crocheted, spool knitted,
tatted, woven, sewn, sculpted
doll made with all manner of
found objects.
Yes…. …read more

I love taking photographs of shadows.
I find the distortion and playfulness
of shadow images to be endlessly fascinating.
For a long time,
I have been
contemplating
designing
a series of
scarves that
are crocheted
shadows.
I have been posting for days now about spinning the streamers from the Blue Man show.
I wove a Unicorn with the first of the upcycled paper yarn, then a Fairy doll, then a basket.
As I came to the end of the paper yarn, I realized that I just had to do something very special with the yarn.
When I flipped my sketchbook open to start some new drawings, I saw sketches and notes that I have …read more

Yesterday,  I posted about the Unicorn that I wove with paper yarn that I spun from streamers from the Blue Man show.
Today, I used the
upcycled paper yarn
to crochet a
fairy doll to
keep the Unicorn
company.
Crocheting the
paper yarn is
a touch tricky.
It will break  if you pull too hard on it.
At the same time,
it has no flex to it,
so it is a lot like
crocheting wire.
So, you have to
be gentle with
the paper yarn,
and gentle with
your tendons.
It’s a delicate balance.
Rather like riding a unicorn…..
While I was crocheting the fairy,
I had some questions.
Here’s the  fairy doll.
I was wondering….
should I add hair?
should I paint
the fairy doll
a color,
or combination
of …read more

We have a new entry on our ’search list’ for when we are noodling through thrift shops and garage sales: Old wooden rulers.
I have fallen madly in love with netting style shuttles and am having a wonderful time upcycling old rulers into shuttles.
Today, I needed to take a little break.
So, I grabbed a couple of the
old wooden rulers that we have
found in our recent travels.
As I was working on carving
the old rulers into shuttles,
I noticed something…
The 2 lower shuttles in the
photo at the left
came from a ruler that
just has inches.
The 2 shuttles at the top of the pic came from …read more

Yesterday, I posted about turning silk teabags into yo yo circle embellishments.
I am a total tea afficianado-
I drink it from morning to night.
White, black, red, green…
I love it.
My husband is a jazz musician,
and when his trio plays at
our favorite bistro,
they always immediately make me
a cup of green tea.
I was just dazzled by the gorgeousness of the flavor of  a new  tea, and was delighted when the server told me that it was because the tea was in a silk bag.   There was no way I was going to throw that bag away, so it came home with me, and inspired …read more

There is something just sooooooooooo magical about buttons.  It seems to me that buttons have the capacity to tell stories.
The buttons in this photo came from a second hand store in Quebec City (including the 6 inch diameter ancestral photo ‘buttons’):
Many of the buttons have gone back to Québec City, as I used them to embellish a handmade book that I made for a dear friend in Québec City. And, she will fill the book with her poems, and I am willing to bet that she will hear the whispered stories that the buttons are imbued with.
Another friend gave me …read more

Have you ever seen a great looking shirt at a second hand store or garage sale, but didn’t buy it because it had somebody’s logo on it?
Well, now you can treat yourself to that shirt and upcycle it by crocheting simple flowers to cover the unwanted logo.
The other day, I was looking at my summer clothes (finally – what a long winter!)
And, I realized that I needed a new black t-shirt.
My old ones  are beyond wearing, and are destined to become fabric strips for weaving.
They’ll also become rags and other ‘green’ options.
Later that day, we were at a garage sale, …read more

I always say that I am a dyed in the wool shuttle tatter.  I love love love tatting shuttles.
I love how they look, I love how they feel, and  I love MAKING tatting shuttles…..
Because I am a tatting shuttle afficianado, I will often look at things and think:
Wow…that looks like a tatting shuttle!
So, the other day, I noticed that a plastic paper clip on my desk looked like it could be a pseudo-tatting shuttle….
Of course, I had to give it a try!
And, yep!
You can indeed, upcycle and re-purpose a plastic paper clip and tat with it!
And, that’s mystery thread that …read more

I’ve been thinking about upcycling and recycling projects in honor of  Earth Day.
Green and eco projects are always a good idea.
I wanted to celebrate Earth day by coming up with some fun ‘eco-upcycling’ projects that would be quick, easy and oh so friendly to the Earth.
I’ve made a few notes about a couple of them, and will be sharing them this week.
Today, a very very easy one  popped into my mind.
I was rummaging through a drawer and
I found a bit of  inkle weaving that had been left over from another project.
I thought… hmmm…. this would make a great bookmark!
Bookmarks are …read more